The History of Iran Art

FIRST PART

THE ART OF IRAN PREISLAMIC

ELAM AND URBAN CIVILIZATION OF IRAN

In the fourth millennium, probably first among the Sumerians and subsequently in the area of ​​Susa, a certain number of sedentary rural societies joined together, giving rise to a new type of economic-cultural aggregation, which we call "city". Among the Sumerians, this period coincides with the construction of Uruk, a city characterized by a high economic ferment that erased some of the characteristics of village life. For example, the growing demand for ceramics involved the elimination, or at least the simplification, of decorations, and the affirmation of more crude and elementary styles and forms. These ceramics, known as "Uruk ceramics", spread throughout southern, central and northern Mesopotamia, up to Syria, and probably also influenced the ceramics of Susa. In this same period, even Susa became a city, indeed, the center of a country. Some independent populations of the region, called Elamites, who from this time gave their name to the area of ​​Susa and to a large part of Iran, participated in the wave of Sumerian urbanization, ending up constituting an element of "competition" for the Sumerians themselves. It is conceivable that the inhabitants of Susa, characterized by uses and customs of great strength, were able to use the existing natural, cultural and economic conditions to implement an effort similar to that already made by the Sumerians on the plains of the Karkheh and Karun rivers. It follows that the affirmation of the region of Susa and its capital is due to the same type of vitality and the same acceleration towards economic progress and the accumulation of riches that come precisely from the activity and commitment of man; and again to the same religious and cultural organization whose result is the unity and unanimity of thought of the people. A large temple was built in Susa for the worship of the united peoples of Elam, whose custodians also served as judges and guides. In this period important personalities emerged whose work is unfortunately largely unknown due to the disappearance of written documentation during the upheavals of history.

Contrary to what happened to Uruk, in Susa, ceramics also present in this period, as in previous eras, extremely significant decorations. They were mostly drawn on seals in the form of convex buttons, and gradually assumed greater perfection. On the same seals, there are also cruciform drawings that resemble the decorations of the vases and the plates, and subjects with unpublished traits (Fig. 4).

In the representations we can again see images of an animal god with horns, a symbol of power and strength, which defeats and subjects lions and snakes. The fish-saw also appears in the drawings, an evident testimony of the proximity to the sea and fishing activity. It is possible to hypothesize that the drawings represent some form of religious activity associated with the official government activities of that territory. This mythological being, as a result of the development of the beliefs of the people, eventually assumed a true divine character and became a powerful and superhuman force of a judge whose action and orders are performed by a vicar, inferior to him, but a participant in the his government, which officiates the religious ritual.

The inhabitants of Susa, defined from this moment on Elamiti, transmit these figures to the Sumerians and this determines the birth of a new urban civilization that is the result of the simultaneous effort of Sumerians and Elamites, endowed with two distinct cultures and yet they have contributed in an exceptional way to the creation of a new human culture and civilization.

With the invention of writing, this new urban civilization entered "history" and thus became a historical civilization. Although there is unanimity in believing that writing was invented by the Sumerians in the second half of the fourth millennium, it must nevertheless be said that in the same period it was also introduced by the Elamites, whose writing was nevertheless completely different from that of the Sumerians - although used a lot rarely. In addition, writing was mainly used to annotate and record food and trade in goods, which were inventoried, as in the Sumerians, on tablets or ogives. These ogives, of terracotta or ceramic, were rather large, empty and had inside them objects a of various geometric shapes - sphere, cone and pyramid - which were used to make the calculations. The Elamites, like the Sumerians, throughout the ancient period used cylindrical seals to register and number goods and this system was mainly used with clay tablets. The seals were small cylinders on which writings and sometimes even drawings were engraved, which were imprinted on clay tablets that were still damp and soft. Once imprinted with such engravings, the tablets took on the value of official documents, just like our papers, which take on legal value thanks to a stamp; the tablets tied to the packaging of the goods thus guaranteed their congruity. This work was carried out by state secretaries, who in addition to cylinders also used ogives.

On the cylinders were engraved both ornamental and religious drawings and writings, which show the religiosity of the time. This new artistic avant-garde left very important traces also on the other arts. These artists worked on the basis of the uses, customs and beliefs of their land and this was precisely the reason for the wealth of their art. This art, moreover, reached the majority of a population that was not yet able to appreciate the advantages of writing. The complex of these representative and plastic arts reached its peak of harmony and balance without deviations or false steps. Thus, in the history of the ancient peoples it undoubtedly occupies the first step, since the whole of the connected arts and sculpture gave rise to a real civilization, in the full sense of the term. However, it must be remembered that no cylindrical seals belonging to this period were found in Susa and Uruk. However, many tablets were found with images of foodstuffs and commercial complexes, which had been recorded using those stamps, along with other tablets and spheres printed with the same cylinders. Thus it seems that the tablets and the olives used for packing the goods were sent to the capital for screening, registration, confirmation and various other bureaucratic formalities. Most of the tablets and olives have been found in Chaghamish, recently discovered by Pierre Delougaz and Helene Kantor, whose excavations are however incomplete and must continue.

The art expressed by these seals is very different from the rural one of the previous periods, and also from that of the migrant and nomadic peoples of the successive periods. The style of this period is marked by a particular type of realism that clearly brings out the psychological and cultural traits of life in the city, under the patina of time. In this style we can see a purity and a candor that make the drawing particularly deserving, while, at the same time, they prepare the birth of the art of bas-relief and statuary. In any case, it should be remembered that the "realism" that characterizes the style of this era is not without contradictory elements and exaggerations, such as the persistence of ornamental designs endowed with extremely rich elements. We can say that this style is at the origin of all the other artistic forms of the ancient Near East of all subsequent epochs, and has also influenced some more distant regions.

The presence of this visual artistic complex, besides showing the originality and the independence of the Elamite art, reveals the cultural and religious splendor of this people and helps to underline the similarities between the Susian and the Babylonian civilizations; similarities that are probably rooted in very remote times, in the very origins of the two peoples, and which could make one think of a very ancient kinship. In any case, among the subjects of the decorations, those of the zoological type continue to prevail, representations as always of natural forces blessed and at the same time terrifying and threatening. The Susians, unlike the early Sumerians, associated these forces with hyperbolic attributes, which they realized by depicting or modeling beings with a huge body, above all mythological creatures like demons, or beings with animal bodies and human heads (or vice versa), or proteiform creatures. such as lions with hawk's wings and claws, or horse's ears and fish scales instead of the mane. Alongside these creatures, victorious mythological personalities or domineers were often represented. Popular also became decorations depicting scenes of daily activities of the people, generally those that constituted their sources of income (Fig. 5).

It can be said that in ancient Elam hunting had retained its importance in the life of the population, while breeding also had its part of relevance, since we have representations of sheep offerings to the tutelary deity of the city or to its representative. Although there are no representations that indicate the continuity of agricultural activity in Susa, we know - from the discovery of numerous warehouses - that the city was at the time one of the most important cereal centers.

Another element worthy of attention in the urban period of Susa is the emergence of trades and specialized industries, such as weaving, baking, and the manufacture and storage of pottery, which constituted the production of Elam for export and for the which the Elam remained famous for centuries. Metallurgy must also be mentioned, since there are many copper, silver and gold artifacts that date back to this era. As has been said, in fact, the oldest welded body of gold that has ever been found, dates back to the Susa of the fourth millennium: a dog with a ring on his back, to hang around his neck or elsewhere. These artifacts show how at that time the art of Islam had made great progress. In addition, some stone sculptures have been found that show the interest that the inhabitants of Susa and Elam harbored in the plastic arts. The findings give us back the image of a people aware, free, sure of their means and who wanted to create a true art and civilization.

It is possible, in general, to compare the characteristics of this civilization with those of the cities of ancient Greece, although, since the Elam is much older, there is no contemporaneity between the two.

The solid bureaucratic, productive and artistic institutions examined so far show an attitude to a certain type of freedom and exercise of free thought - or to put it in a Western term, of ancient "democracy". Another distinctive feature of this civilization is the close connection with religion and worship, and the centrality they play. The architectural remains, however, indicate that the Susians - and the Elamites in general - resided all around the monumental complex of the temple, and at the foot of its base, which still stands on the hill in the center of the city, as shown by the finds . The building - the temple of the city, that is - appears erected on a large raised area that dominated the very heart of the city (a model that will probably later serve as an example for the early ziggurats), and also served as a center of public administration ; it is also possible to go so far as to hypothesize that the governor of the city lived in the complex, and since his task was both to exert the city and to officiate the religious ritual, he is called king-priest. A depiction of this figure next to the temple has been found, a representation that describes the rank and status of a triumphant military leader. It is the only one of this kind that has been found until today, and it seems to be a figure very similar to those of the animal deities produced in the Susa of the beginning of the urban period.

The Elamite civilization of Susa spaced even in the plains of Karkheh and Karun, and even beyond. Excavations recently carried out by Iranian archaeologists in the central regions of the country - at Robat-e Karim and Cheshme Ali, near Ray - have brought to light traces of highly evolved urban civilizations. The excavations, which are still in progress, show that these cities, active between the fourth and third millennium, were equipped with advanced institutions and structures. Distilleries and remnants of rediscovered vineyards indicate that horticulture and the processing of excess fruit into strategic and useful products to preserve were part of the activities and occupations that were widespread in them. The grape distillate can be stored for years in bottles or barrels, and in all probability the inhabitants of this city and others similar to it exchanged goods with those of Karkheh, Karun and Susa.

The influence of the Elamite civilization on the cities of central Iran and on the eastern part of the plateau is clear and out of the question; however, the kinship between the inhabitants of the central plains and those of Karkheh and Karun was narrower than that between Susa and those regions. At the same time, until the establishment of the Persian empire, history does not register any type of military confrontation or violent intervention between the Elam and the cities of the plains. The Susians, like their Sumerian cousins, were always a good example and an excellent model for the neighboring peoples, and their behavior was very different from that of the inhabitants of the Zagros mountains. The peoples who inhabited the small urban agglomerations of the Zagros preferred the actions of war or assault on the patient life of commerce, exchange and culture, regularly swooping down from the mountains to attack the cities, Sumerian first and Assyrian later. Despite this they were excellent defenders of the border to the west of Iran. The Susians, who were the founders of a new civilization, loved to develop their activities to the maximum. For this reason, once connected to the main shopping centers, they extended their streets to the farthest points. Susa became in fact the capital of a country, the Elam, which extended over most of Iran and which maintained under its influence numerous smaller urban centers distributed to central Iran. In the citadel of Siyalk, for example, Elamite buildings were found, probably built to participate in the wealth of that region, or used as warehouses located along the communication and transport routes of grains and foodstuffs, which were brought to Susa, or, on the contrary, from Susa to the central cities. If we accept this hypothesis, then we can consider Liyan (today's Bushehr, on the eastern coast of the Gulf) as one of the commercial bases that served as storage for the foodstuffs that came to Elam by sea.

The urban civilization of Susa, completely distinct from the homologous one of the Sumerians, flourished in the context of the Asian continent in contact with the Egyptians before the royal dynasties. It can be hypothesized that the Elamites of Susa established trade relations with Egypt by sea, and this would be a valid test to demonstrate the strength and influence of the civilization of Susa in the antic world.
 

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